Most notably, Shawn Thornton twice lost his temper. Once when he was ridden into the boards hard during a forecheck drill by Dennis Seidenberg. Thornton banged his ribs against the dasher, and in response spiked his stick over at the bench.

Later during a 2-on-2, he responded to a Johnny Boychuk blow to the face in the drill with a slash to the defenseman’s back.

Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron even let their tempers flare at one another at one point. If ever a team needed a Festivus “airing of grivances” it was this Bruins squad, and that’s exactly what those at Ristuccia Arena were greeted by.

After the near-hour-long throwdown, during which every drills was high-intensity and full of rancor, Thornton tried to chalk up his show of emotions to having a bad day. But obviously the way the Bruins have played over some stretches of recent games is wearing on him as much as anyone. In particular, Boston’s lifeless loss to Anaheim had everyone ready to go at it as though this practice could be their last.

“If we would’ve played like we practiced today, we wouldn’t have had that practice today. I know that,” Thornton said as he peeled off the tape from his socks while sitting next to Seidenberg — proving that bygones are bygones when it comes to pros.

Maybe it was disappointing to see the Bruins show more emotion and intensity in a practice than in a game 16 hours earlier. But this session might’ve been a step in the right direction.

“We were all flying and we were all focused I thought,” said center Marc Savard. “We all want this game before Christmas and we felt that we let ourselves down a little bit. Everybody likes each other in here, so we’ve just got to work together and today that’s what we did.”

Here’s an unofficial blow-by-blow of today’s practice:

•Zdeno Chara was first one on the ice 10 minutes before the start of the session. He was then joined by Johnny Boychuk, and then the rest of the players trickled out. The forwards were aligned differently than in recent games: Patrice Bergeron centering Mark Recchi and Tyler Seguin, David Krejci between Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder, Savard centering Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton. The only line without a change featured Daniel Paille and Thornton flanking Gregory Campbell.

•After their warm-up skate around the rink, the Bruins worked on tape-to-tape passes on breakouts — one defenseman up to a center, the center up to a wing. Once the center’s two wings had moved up ice and shot, the center went end to end and shot, and then the D carried it up and did the same. No contact yet, but still a rapid pace.

•Time to work on the forecheck, with a forward chipping the puck deep and two forwards determined to cause a turnover below the goal line. This is where Thornton and Seidenberg had their run-in. Other bodies went flying as well, and head coach Claude Julien stopped the drill at one point to get guys to sharpen up their approach to pursuing the puck or the puck-carrier. Maybe there weren’t enough f-bombs to appease some, but nonetheless the coach had anger in his voice (and was loud enough to hear in the stands). Players not involved in the drill were forced to stand along the sides of the rink to wait their turn rather than sit on the bench. There was little down time between groups.

•Next came some intense 2-on-2 action, with the drill starting with a chase after a dump-in. This was where Thornton and Boychuk exchanged pleasantries. Even Savard and Bergeron exchanged shoves in the neutral zone after their turn was done, and Horton gave both a love tap with his stick to get them to bury the hatchet. More bodies flew in this drill than in the last five periods of game action for the Bruins.

•The one-zone, 3-on-3 battle drill was at its usual intense level. But there was definitely more of an edge, and Horton was even shaken up at one point. He sat out his turn and went to check in with the medical staff but was back in by the time the drill was over. He was fine in the dressing room once practice ended.

•After a quick primer from Julien, the Bruins concluded practice with some 3-on-2s. The drill was less physical than the prior few, but required speed and endurance.

Now comes the real test. Sure, the Bruins haven’t had much time to hold practices like this. And even if there was more down time, they wouldn’t want to beat the life out of each other every time and risk emptying the tank. But it shouldn’t take a practice like this to get more than two dozen pro athletes to at least work hard and play with emotion when two points are on the line.

We’ll see if they can carry over the intensity to a game for once and maintain it for 60 minutes once the Thrashers land at the TD Garden. Bruin-on-Thrasher crime would be much appreciated.

I was at practice today. The media is blowing this thing out of proportion. Everyone on the team was clearly pissed off when they took the ice because they got the crap kicked out of them 12 hours before. That being said, it was a decently hard practice. The intense part lasted about a half hour, and that was it. I think the scariest thing was that you can see that the team isn’t happy with Savard. The way his teammates act around him they are clearly annoyed with the guy. The incident with Bergeron was nothing.
Thorton must have gotten hurt 3 or 4 times before he got mad. He got hit when he wasn’t supposed too, and I saw him grab his face atleast twice before he snapped.
For anyone who hasn’t seen a hockey practice, people push each other, and guys get pissed off when they get hurt. Especially when they just got embarassed the night before.
Bad loss + little sleep + hard practice = pissed off players
and the media gets something to write about on a slow day.

Sad to say but, the 4th line has been the most promising this year. Cambell, Marchand, and Thorton have been the best line by far so far. They may not have the goal scoring ability as the other lines, but man do they give 100% every shift. I wish the 3 other lines would show some damn emotion. Also whats up with Lucic, I mean my favorite player by far, but did the staff instruct him not to fight anymore? I can’t recall but I don’t think he’sdropped the gloves this year at all. How do you go from, bad ass winger to Lady Bing candidate in 1 year? Did they brainwash him into trying to play the goal scorer for the team? Give me the Lucic that scores 20-25 goals and, scares the crap out of the oppoonet with massive hits and fists of steel. Also, Blake Wheeler can be sent to Providence any time now. 6ft. 5inches of pure Kitty Cat. I’d be willing to bet his stats would be exactly the same in Prov. as in Boston

Really, demote Ryder to Providence, really? He’s the only one working out there. Lucic and Horton have disappeared. And Savard should be on the third line tops until he figures it out, if he makes another no look pass to nobody I’m going to rip my plasma off the wall. Wheeler after uncharistically playing tough has reverted back to his old self, and speaking of old, Reicci looks 100 years old lately. I do like Julien but his system creates apathy, dump and chase… I mean what is that, it’s definitely not aggressive. I don’t care about retaliation or fights, just hit someone, stop avoiding contact, take the body… that means you Chara, mister limp wristed poke checker. I guess the neutral zone should be called the no hit zone. AAARrrrgh!

demote Horton?! wow. am I right in reading it (it’s often tough to pick which player is on which wing and which line has priority with these updates) as follows?
Lucic/Savard/Horton
Wheeler/Krejci/Ryder
Recchi/Bergeron/Seguin
Paille/Campbell/Thornton
works with me! especially once Paille is sitting and Marchand is healthy.

—

“….Nathan [Horton. The] only line….”
“….then the D [carried] it up….”
“….Julien [stopped] the drill….”
gets confusing to read when the verb tenses change a lot. good detailed report. time for a Gordon/Neely/Julien/other coach poll?

I don’t see this as being a coach problem. I see this as a bunch of players who don’t care enough about winning. Demote the worst of them (Ryder & Horton) down to the P Bruins and make them work their way back up. If that doesn’t motivate everyone else then blow the team up and start over. We need a team that wants the Stanley Cup so badly they will draw blood, even their own, to get it. Right now I’d say only about 4 or 5 guys fit that critera. Sick of it.

As for the line combos…Hallelujah! Finally some good combos. I like the Bergeron line as the 2nd and the Krejci line as the third, but otherwise A-Ok. Of course with this team, the 4th line gets a lot of time.

There’s a reason why our pal Claude has been fired (Montreal & New Jersey) in the middle of a season, and never reaching the finals. He lacks intensity and seems reluctant to make players accountable for their efforts on the ice. There have been literally a handfull of times when he’s benched players for lack of effort. Talk is cheap, send a damn message, do something Claude. I am sick of other teams taking liberties with Bruins players, and there’s no response. To me, that intensity and grit comes from the top. The bad ass Bruins mentallity has gone away, and it’s sad to see. They had an intense practice today, so friggin what. If it starts to translate on the ice night in and night out, I’ll be happy.

Anyone remember a few years ago, pre-Claude, when everyone wanted Scott Gordon behind the bench with the big club, instead of the baby B’s? Guess what, he’s now available and I’m pretty sure that he’s full of piss and vinegar.

Listen, I’m not saying fire the Claude. The situation is not that dire…yet, but if this continues there is someone who is currently out there, who’s very familier with the organization and a home town boy to boot.

This is exactly what I like to hear. The Bruins go after each other in practice but if an opposing player takes a run or a cheap shot to a teammate you do nothing because your coach will get upset that you got a penalty. If their is a better coach (a young coach full of piss and vinegar and not just a name) out there fire Julien now.

Anyone curious as to why Lucic seems to hesitant to start a scrap? Is he worried he could break a finger and end up having to take time off due to injuries like he did last year? Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving his production and he’s one of the few bruins who finishes his checks but I think needs to let the dog off the leash and get after somebody. Can’t always leave it up to Shawn.

This team needs to turn it around quickly. If not, Claude needs to be shown the door and someone needs to be brought in to get some production and energy out of a very talented roster. Seguin needs the training wheels taken off him. Perhaps the Bruins had the right coach all along but unfortunately he was an assistant while he was here, i.e., Craig Ramsay.

This sounds like a serious practice, too bad during last game they allow Salanne to push one of there teammates from behind & don’t as much as touch him afterwards. This team has to wake up & start playing with passion game in & game out, they sure as hell have not been doing that up to this point, infact they do well to play consistent for a period let alone a game. I will be impressed if i see some rock’em sock’em hockey against Atlanta next game, until then there rough little practice is not enough to impress this Bruin fan.

Let’s hope this means they beat the snot out of the Thrashers on Thursday. (I’d much prefer the Canadiens, but channeling their anger at any opponent is good at this point.) I don’t really care if they take penalties, as long as there is some sign of emotion from the zombie team.

“I mean listen, we’re sitting here talking about practice, not a game, … We’re talking about practice. We’re not talking about the game…”

Wait. Wrong sport, sorry.

Anyway, It’ll be nice if this translates into something meaningful. It’s good to hear that they are a little testy the day after they took a steaming s%#t in front of a paying live and national TV audience. But, it’s all pointless if it isn’t there on Thursday.